Hi everyone! It's officially been a month since I said goodbye to my family and WOW I miss them already. Lucky for me, I get to talk to them pretty often. Even though I miss all of you amazing people back home, I am having the best time here in the Southern Hemisphere. Now that we are in our fourth week of training, I have adjusted into somewhat of a daily routine. I thought it would be kind of cool if I made a blog post about what a typical day of pre-service training looks like for me. So on Wednesday, October 16th, 2019, I went about my typical day but took LOADS of pictures. I hope you enjoy!
First things first, I usually wake up at 5:00 am. This is if I can sleep past the first call to prayer which usually happens around 4:30 am (I think?). However, this is rarely a problem because my mom raised kids who can sleep through anything. At 19 years old, I once fell asleep on a bridge while my family was panning for gold but that's a story for another time. I usually check my phone for a while before dragging myself out of bed.
After my bed is made, I love to have quiet time. What is quiet time you may ask? It's a time where I put on my favorite tunes (usually my all time favorites playlist on Spotify- you should check it out!), journal, pray, and look at my planner to get ready for the day. I've been keeping three different types of journals so far and each of them have a different purpose.
After journaling, I go straight into a core workout. I switch off between making up my own workout and using an app I found called Workout for Women. It has 7-10 minute workouts that are perfect to start your day. I'll post a picture below for anyone interested!
After I'm done with core, I love to get out and go on a run. Since my marathon at the end of August, I've been really relaxed when it comes to cardio. I consider it a win to just get out and about. Therefore, my runs have been comprised of a lot of walking which is not a bad thing at all. With the intense heat here (even at 6 am), it's probably for the best.
After my run, I usually eat breakfast with my Ibu. I'm almost always starving at this point too. On this morning, I had two platefuls of tempe, tofu, potatoes, and of course, rice!
After breakfast, it's time for a mandi (bath). The picture below shows what my mandi looks like. A mandi is the traditional Indonesian way of washing yourself. I stand on the outside of this large tub of water and take a gayung (small bucket/scooper thing) and pour water on myself. It's very refreshing and I think I've adapted well to my new shower situation. Also, there's a fish that swims around in my mandi to clean the water so I have to make sure to not scoop him up.
At this point, it's usually around 7:15 am. I spend the next 45 minutes studying Bahasa, reading, cleaning, doing laundry, or getting assignments done. On this particular day, I FaceTimed my mom and Lucy. Lucy and I have a weekly FaceTime appointment set up on Tuesday evenings for her and Wednesday mornings for me. It's the best way to start my day.
At 8:00 am, we have Bahasa Indonesia class. Lucky for me, class takes place at my house so I can just walk outside and start. There are four other trainees in my class. We have two different teachers that switch off on a weekly basis. Classes can be a lot with a ton of information and brain work but our teachers make them really fun with games and other activities.
Language class ends at 11:30 am and then it's lunch time. On this day, I had pretty much the same food that I ate for breakfast plus some tasty star fruit. After lunch, we bike over to the next village where our Link site is. This is where a group of 20 of us gather for Peace Corps sessions.
We have sessions at Link from 1-4:15 pm. The sessions today were Functions and Notions and Receptive Skills. The sessions are taught by a Peace Corps staff member and usually a Peace Corps Resource Volunteer. The resource volunteers were in our shoes a year ago so it's really great having them here and being able to ask them questions about their experiences.
After the sessions end, I usually stay at Link for a while and use the WiFi. This is a great chance to work on blog posts, download shows to watch later on, and work on assignments.
On this night, I went home and took another mandi because apparently all I do is sweat here. Around 6:00 pm, my language cluster gathered for a game night! I biked over to my friend's house and happily gobbled up some pizza. The pizza was perfection and game night was a ton of fun.
After a couple hours of games and laughter, I biked home and chatted with my Ibu for a while. Once it hit 9:30 pm, the exhaustion hit and I was ready for bed. The last thing I do before I fall asleep is read. I'm currently reading "City of Bones" which is my sister, Kendall's, favorite series that she has been trying to get me to read forever. Lucky for her, I have a couple years to read through the series. :)
And there you have it! That's what a typical day of pre-service training looks like for me. It's a lot but it's all very exciting so I'm trying not to waste a single minute. I'm feeling very grateful for this opportunity and the training I am getting to start my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Also, I really appreciate all of you who are taking the time to read my blog posts. It means a lot! Much love! -Niki
We are such different people. :) Glad you wake up at 5am every day to work out while I watched The Vampire Diaries til 2:30 in the morning last night instead of doing my homework. Miss you, kind woman who once kept my life on track. Don't know what I'm doing without you ;)
I love reading about all that you're doing! Wow, do you have a lot of energy! Glad to see it's not nearly as primitive as I had imagined. You look great and sound great and it seems as if you've got a great group of people surrounding you! Keep the interesting posts coming! Much love to you!